Setting up 3 monitors on Radeon HD5450 without adapters?

I recently bought a Radeon HD5450 graphics card with 1GB of DDR3 memory, it has three outputs: VGA, HDMI and AVI (ATI Radeon).

I have had 2 monitors plugged in for a while using the VGA and HDMI ports as I didn't have a AVI lead. Today I got a lead and hooked up a third monitor, instead of all three working only the AVI and HDMI monitors are working. I went onto the monitor layout and my VGA monitor is shaded out.

In the catalyst control centre that came with the card it says its disabled and to extend onto another monitor has to be disabled. I found this thread <>http://www.sevenforums.com/graphic-cards/135589-hd5450-triple-monitor-support-problem.html> which talks about getting the third monitor running when using an adapter. I want to know can I get this working without a adapter.

Thanks in advance for the help.

I have an XFX Radeon HD6870 2GB with 2x Mini DisplayPort, 2x DVI and one time HDMI.
The ATI support told me back in the days that you can only use 2 ports at the same time, unless you use so called "Active" adapters. I got one myself, Mini DisplayPort to DVI. If I want to use 3 monitors at once, I can only use both the mini displayports and my HDMI output, otherwise it won't work. So basically, you can't do this with cards without Mini DisplayPort. After looking on the forums, I also see people with the same card trying this, but no one is "sure". I only see "Might work" and such replies.

With that card, no you can't. The best you're going to get is two using a combination of either the DVI (not AVI) and HDMI or VGA and HDMI. Reason is that the card only has two RAMDAC's,

RAMDAC - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

on it, and one of them is shared between the DVI and VGA port and can only be used for either or. You can use a DVI or VGA splitter, but unless all you want is a clone/duplicate of one of the displays, not worth doing.

stormy13 said:

With that card, no you can't.

Click to expand...

I know that the can get 3 monitors from this card as I found a thread on this forum where people managed to get 3 monitors working with adapters for the card

http://www.sevenforums.com/graphic-cards/135589-hd5450-triple-monitor-support-problem.html

Except that the person's card in that thread has a displayport instead of a HDMI port, which works independently of the DVI and VGA ports (which both have their own RAMDAC). With you card having a DVI, VGA and HDMI ports the best you're going to get is two monitors to work.

If you looked at the first post of that thread it is the same graphics card but all he has done is put a display port adapter into the HDMI slot. So he has set up 3 monitors from that card using the VGA, DVI and adapter to the HDMI.

Read it again. This is what he said,

Mundle101 said:

I recently upgraded my Graphics Card to a Radeon HD 5450 with Triple monitor support,
it has 3 outputs 1-DVI ,,1-VGA,, 1-Display port hooked up to 3 monitors, 2 samsung 19" wide screens and a I-INC 25" widescreen... Currently i have the 25" in the middle with a 19" on either side,, The Problem is when i go to extend the desktop in the Appearance box, and click apply i get a error ( Unable to save Display settings ) it will let me use that monitor i couldn't extend only if i disable another display first (IE: my main monitor) all the drivers for monitors and card is up to date,,

25" plugged in with a Display Port to HDMI adapter
19" plugged in with a Standard VGA cable
19" plugged in with a DVI cable

AND I'm about to pull my hair out on this, any input would be greatly Appreciated.

Click to expand...

The adapter he used is displayport to HDMI, not HDMI to displayport. In his case he needed an active adapter, where he had started with a passive one.

No matter how you slice it you are not going to get three monitors off the card you have with DVI, VGA and HDMI without using a VGA or DVI splitter. And if you do all you will be doing is cloning/duplicating the one's connected to the splitter.

Window driver appears to be the issue

I have just installed Linux Minx onto my machine and it automatically detected all 3 monitors without the use of any adapters. All 3 monitors work independently or as duplicates. An 18", 19" and a 22" monitor work at high resolution. I am using the 1GB version of this card.

Using Windows 7 I also can only extend the desktop onto any 2 monitors at one time.

Common issue with HD 5450

I know this thread is old, but I have realized there is a major error with these HD 5450 video cards. Technically, yes, we should be able to run 3 monitors with 2 of the same cards, in this case Sapphire HD 5450s. BUT, the problem is the box you bought your card in said HD 5450 and the stickers on the board say it and they look exactly the same as the other 5450 you may have, but someone driver signed a number of them incorrectly. I found this out the hard way. Bought 2 of the same... same box, markings and style. Put them both in my mainboard which is more than awesome enough to handle these and Windows 7 BSOD'd me and rebooted over and over. So, pulled the cards, swapped slots (waste of time) with the same results. Pulled one out, Win7 started as should, went to Device Manager and got the read of 5450. Turned off the PC and swapped cards, rebooted perfectly, in a larger resolution... RED FLAG right there. Went to Device Manager and the read was 5400 series. That is a major conflict. Anytime you run dual cards you need them to be exactly the same. In my case, and probably a lot of others, I got one 5450 and one 5400, but where both in 5450 boxes and had the same exact marking and stickers... So, if you have this problem, contact Sapphire. Get it resolved. You always go back to the OEM for these types of situations. Hope it helps someone...

Not true, you only need the same exact series if you want to run them in sli or crossfire.

I have run 2 different series nvidia cards going to 2 different monitors in the past with no issues, yes it amazed me too.